Match report: South Africa 15 England 6: The Springboks are the world champions and good luck to them. They deserve it.

They were the only unbeaten side in the tournament over seven matches, and it is not their fault that their three expected knock-out opponents all slipped up en route to Saturday's World Cup final. Nor is it their fault they were presented with England in the final. It meant they could win with probably the most conservative performance of any of the six finals.

Bryan Habana, whose ratio of tries is hugely assisted by interceptions or turnovers, hardly had a pass all night. The Springboks did not take one risk in the entire 80 minutes. Ultimately, more's the pity, they did not have to.

England actually played some of their best rugby of the tournament in this decider. Echoing their more expansive approach in the failed final against the tournament top dogs, Australia, in 1991, they gave the ball more width than the Boks and tried to take the game to the opposition for much of the night. Behind for all bar 11 minutes, they didn't have much choice, and the Boks, as we know, are the game's supreme frontrunners.

For England it was a bridge too far, injuries to the weary old warriors Phil Vickery, Jason Robinson and Mike Catt leaving them with a callow look for the final half hour and their talisman, Jonny Wilkinson, a little lost. Most of the decisions or rubs of the green went against them too. Perhaps their luck ran out.

As with their 1995 triumph against the All Blacks in Ellis Park, South Africa won their second World Cup in a tryless decider. This is the way when it comes down to the business end of things. Of the five tryless matches in the history of World Cups, two have been finals and two semi-finals. That doesn't make them bad matches. Indeed the 9-3 win by Australia over Samoa at a sodden Sardis Road in 1995 was a cracker.

It maintained a trend with England, naturally, for the three lowest-scoring games of the cup were their three knock-out games - in which they scored one try.

The Springboks never looked like scoring a try, and once ahead they were quite content to let their defence keep England out and to kick for territory or touch, whereupon they could attack England's lineout.

At least when the Pumas soak up the pressure, they can strike from deep or unexpectedly; their players are given licence to play with their heads up and have a go, from turnovers, counterattacks and broken play and in the opposition half.

For all their talk about "shooting a 59", they lacked the courage of those pre-match convictions. Their ambition was negligible. But then, who in their entourage or back home watching in South Africa will care about that?

At times this pulverising, full-on collision of a final resembled Aussie Rules, what with all the big hits, big kicks and big jumps to contest high balls. England played the first half-hour very well, making as their starting point the absolute necessity for any confrontation with the Springboks, namely match them physically.

This they more than did, with a sequence of eye-watering tackles by Martin Corry - as ever, a credit throughout to English rugby - Nick Easter, Lewis Moody and others; even Mathew Tait ripping ball out in the tackle. England put some width on the ball too, even once running the risk of an intercept, whereas the Boks' skill levels and laboured passing betrayed final-day nerves, and England generally kicked well, testing the vulnerable JP Pietersen under the high ball. But come the half-hour mark they were behind 6-3 on the scoreboard, their superiority was - as is the way of the modern game - proving less influential than the South Africans' lineout superiority.

By stealing England's first two throws they negated England's brighter start, and though England varied their calls well, mixing it up with shortened lineouts, by the end the towering Victor Matfield, Bakkies Botha and once, critically, Juan Smith, had stolen eight of England's throws.

The more numerous England hordes made it feel like a home match for the Red Rose, and knowing their team's limitations, the English fans questioned as many calls as possible by the officials. Their sense of injustice and desperation was put in context by replays of Mark Cueto running into John Smit and diving to earn a penalty for "blocking" after Lewis Moody had enabled Percy Montgomery to make it 6-3 when stupidly tripping Butch James.

In this, and much more, Alain Rolland actually had a typically sharp game.

The highlights, such as they were, could be distilled into the tally of six penalties from seven, two drop-goal attempts by Wilkinson (the first, at 6-3, an excellent opportunity off a well worked move off the tail by Moody, Simon Shaw and Vickery, the second born of desperation at 15-6 off his right foot) and two spellbinding line breaks by Francois Steyn and Tait.

If Steyn had offloaded then or from the recycle the Boks were possibly in.

Each break would yield three points, but Stuart Dickinson's call that harshly but perhaps correctly denied Cueto an early second-half try off Tait's stunning break made England's loss the greater.

Matfield's covering tackle on Tait, and Danie Rossouw's fully extended effort on Cueto, were typical of the Boks' defensive resilience on the rare occasion they were stretched.

From there on, there was an inevitability about it all. The Boks could happily kick to touch, and keep Wilkinson out of range, conceding only five penalties in total.

More than any statistics, history will show discipline and defence won the 2007 Coupe du Monde.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins: Montgomery pen 3-0; 12: Wilkinson pen 3-3; 16: Montgomery pen 6-3; 40: Montgomery pen 9-3 (half-time 9-3); 44: Wilkinson pen 9-6; 51: Montgomery pen 12-6; 62: Steyn pen 15-6.

SOUTH AFRICA: P Montgomery (Natal Sharks); JP Pietersen (Natal Sharks), J Fourie (Golden Lions), F Steyn (Natal Sharks), B Habana (Blue Bulls); B James (Natal Sharks), F du Preez (Blue Bulls); O du Randt (Free State), J Smit (Natal Sharks, capt), CJ van der Linde (Free State Cheetahs); B Botha (Natal Sharks), V Matfield (Blue Bulls); S Burger (Western Province), J Smith (Free State), D Rossouw (Blue Bulls). Replacements: B du Plessis (Natal Sharks) for Smit (72-76 mins), W van Heerden (Blue Bulls) for Rossouw (73 mins). Not used: J du Plessis (Free State), J Muller (Natal Sharks), R Pienaar (Natal Sharks), A Pretorius (Golden Lions), W Olivier (Blue Bulls).

ENGLAND: J Robinson (Unattached); P Sackey (Wasps), M Tait (Newcastle), M Catt (London Irish), M Cueto (Sale); J Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), A Gomarsall (Harlequins); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Regan (Bristol), P Vickery (Wasps); S Shaw (Wasps), B Kay (Leicester); M Corry (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins). Replacements: M Stevens (Bath) for Vickery (half-time), D Hipkiss (Leicester) for Robinson (47 mins), T Flood (Newcastle) for Catt (51 mins), G Chuter (Leicester) for Regan (63 mins), L Dallaglio (Wasps) for Easter, J Worsley (Wasps) for Moody (both 65 mins), P Richards (London Irish) for Worsley (71 mins).

Referee: Alain Rolland(Ireland).

Dickinson stands his ground on video ruling . . .

The TV referee who disallowed Mark Cueto's potentially match-turning try on Saturday night has defended a decision that dashed English hopes of becoming the first team to retain the Webb Ellis trophy.

Australian Stuart Dickinson, one of the game's most experienced and controversial officials, said he was certain he had made the right call, and suggested England's fans and players should get used to it in the wake of their 15-6 defeat to South Africa.

Speaking after he had reviewed footage of the incident with senior officials from the International Rugby Board, Dickinson said, "I'm 100 per cent happy with the decision today. We looked at some footage of it late last night and factually the decision is indisputable."

Dickinson examined numerous replays, eventually deciding after a four-minute delay to disallow the score. Replays in the stadium suggested a try had been scored, and England fans booed the decision. After the game Cueto said: "I watched it on the replay and I thought it was 100 per cent a try."

Yesterday Dickinson, who was criticised in the summer by the French coach Bernard Laporte and the South African coach Jake White for performances in internationals, said English disappointment was misplaced.

"Of course the players are disappointed. If they weren't you would be disappointed in them as elite athletes," he added.

He also rejected suggestions nationality had played a part: "What's being an Aussie got to do with it? If you know the decision is correct and people are still upset, well there's nothing you can do about that, is there? Opinions are like bums; everyone's got one."

England's players and coaching staff accepted the decision gracefully yesterday.

"He made his decision and you have to accept it and move on," said the head coach, Brian Ashton.

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